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The zoo from hell

Discussion in 'Speculative Zoo Design and Planning' started by DavidBrown, 13 Mar 2013.

  1. Dassie rat

    Dassie rat Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Skunks and stink badgers are placed in the Family Mephitidae.
     
  2. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Yes, Mephitidae. The stink badgers of southeast Asia are also skunks as it turns out (basically, badgery-looking skunks rather than skunky-looking badgers), and there are also quite a few fossil skunks known from Eurasia.
     
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  3. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Wild skunks are constantly leaking this scent, and I know captive ones occasionally do as well.
     
  4. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

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    As a general rule of thumb it's perhaps not the wisest course of action to tell multiple people with experience of intact skunks (including individuals with an extensive history of first-hand care of intact skunks) that their opinions are wrong and yours are right :p

    Indeed; if memory serves me correctly, retaining skunks within the Mustelidae would require red pandas to be lumped within the family too :) given the skunk/badger/zorilla body plan is so common within the group, it raises interesting questions about the basal state of the clade as a whole. I certainly recall reading that the particularly small size of the genus Mustela is a derived condition.
     
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  5. FBBird

    FBBird Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Let's see: which one has an actual zoo?:)
     
  6. Dassie rat

    Dassie rat Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    And which one loves tea?
     
  7. FBBird

    FBBird Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I was not referring to TLD: he knows his stuff. As does the guy with the zoo.
     
  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    If one person is talking (in this instance) about wild skunks, with which he is presumably at least somewhat familiar, and another is talking about captive skunks and probably has had no contact with wild skunks at all, then I feel like both people can be equally correct. I'd imagine that wild skunks would smell more whiffy than captive skunks because they have probably had cause to spray repeatedly, and everyone knows how well the scent of skunk-spray clings.
     
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  9. FBBird

    FBBird Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    What an excellent resolution, the rest of us should have thought of that.
     
  10. TeaLovingDave

    TeaLovingDave Moderator Staff Member 10+ year member

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    Very true.... but the tangent arose because birdsandbats was saying intact skunks in captivity cannot be used as pets or experience animals because they smell too bad:

     
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  11. Andrew Swales

    Andrew Swales Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for trying, but he wasn't... He specifically said no-one would want a skunk as pet if it hadnt been de-scented. Pet = Captive...
     
  12. birdsandbats

    birdsandbats Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    That makes sense, thanks. I am quite familiar with wild skunks, I have never seen a captive skunk with scent glands intact.
     
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  13. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    You say this but I, apparently, did pet some scented skunks whilst in the UK last. I did not realize they were scented until this moment, though :p

    ~Thylo
     
  14. UngulateNerd92

    UngulateNerd92 Well-Known Member Premium Member 5+ year member

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    Here is another exhibit idea, an aquarium where every tank/enclosure is filled with single use plastics. The seabird and shorebird exhibits at this aquarium would have crude oil gushing into them. That would certainly be a zoological facility from hell! Unfortunately a hell that already exists on our earth all to often...
     
  15. iluvwhales

    iluvwhales Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    1. Walkthrough tarantula room, complete with spider webs, juuuuust out of reach of a person's head, at the entrance and exits.
    2. A big concrete room with many big dogs in cages. Their barking will be very loud.
    3. A glass tunnel with a glass floor suspended in a big shark tank. Sharks above, net to, and under you. Maybe every now and then the tunnel wobbles. Every now and then, speakers hidden by info signs loudly play the sounds of glass breaking, water rushing, and the Jaws theme song.
    4. Walkthrough (vampire) bat enclosure. In some sections, paths will be next to a rock wall that is obscured by darkness. Every now and then, little machines in the rock wall puff air on the guests to make them think the bats will get in their hair.
    5. Rhinoceros matador experience.
     
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  16. Luke da Zoo nerd

    Luke da Zoo nerd Well-Known Member

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    A walk through ostrich, emu, and cassowary exhibit.
     
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  17. Yoshistar888

    Yoshistar888 Well-Known Member

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    There actually is a tank filled with single use plastics at the Melbourne Aquarium


    Never seen a walk through Ostrich or Cassowary exhibit but walkthrough Emu exhibits are scary.

    ive been to two, one I can’t remember as I was quite young and it’s up in Queensland’s Currumbin Sanctuary.

    The other though (shudders) is at Phillip Island Wildlife park where it’s you, other peope, red kangaroos and large mobs of emus. The emus run towards you and try and steal the food bags off you by pecking where ever they see or smell food. Luckily by raising your hand up they back down.
     
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  18. Mr Gharial

    Mr Gharial Well-Known Member

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    A zoo where all the information boards only have cartoon character pictures and only holds information on their movie counterparts

    Lion - Simba
    Elephant - Dumbo
    Lemur (any species) - King Julian
    Regal blue tang - Dory
    Any old world monkey - Monkey (from Kung Fu Panda)

    Animals who aren't movie stars are either not held at the zoo, or have basic cartoon characters with slap-on personality (Example: Koro the crocodile! He has trouble making friends because of his sharp teeth, but he really just wants a hug!)
     
    Last edited: 1 May 2021
  19. Mr Gharial

    Mr Gharial Well-Known Member

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  20. Mr Gharial

    Mr Gharial Well-Known Member

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    Bizar zoo has a striped skunk walkthrough, they was quite lovely
     
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